Friday, November 25, 2016

A visit to the Crazy Golf course in Southport's Botanic Gardens.

The last time we arrived home from Southport we noticed that we'd missed out on visiting another Crazy Golf course. The layout is in the Botanic Gardens and is the sister site to the course in Hesketh Park and they do look very much alike.

Unfortunately we weren't able to have a game on the course as it was closed for the season.

The Lucky Last Hole. I won a free game card when I played at Hesketh Park. It's valid at the Botanic Gardens course too

While having a wander around Manchester I popped into the Calendar Club shop to see if they had any of the Dull Men's Club Calendars in stock. They did, the first ones I've seen on the shelf.

The Dull Men's Club Calendar 2017

Mr July putting on the windmill hole at Skegness Crazy Golf

For a number of years the Dull Men's Club has published a calendar to help people mark how they're celebrating the ordinary throughout the year. As longstanding members of the Dull Men's Club, Emily and I were selected to appear in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A dull pin up

The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar also features a pencil enthusiast, cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

The calendar costs £9.99 and can be bought from the Calendar Club shops (although I haven't seen it in the Stockport branch, yet) and online.

The World Minigolf Sport Federation is the umbrella organisation of 62 Minigolf sports associations worldwide with continental associations in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. There are more than 38,000 competitive minigolf players registered with the WMF via the 62 member nations, with 900-plus clubs between them. Over 1,000 courses are approved for official competitions and over 1,500 minigolf tournaments are held each year.

The WMF is gaining further recognition on the global stage all the time. As a member of SportAccord and an organisation called AIMS (the Alliance of Independent Members of SportAccord) the WMF's next goal is to achieve International Olympic Committee recognition.

Apart from the March 2011 list Emily and I have been in the sport's international rankings since November 2008 following our debut for the Great Britain team at that year's Nations Cup championships in Tampere, Finland.

The Great Britain Minigolf Sport Team is sponsored by UrbanCrazy, suppliers of permanent and portable mini and crazy golf courses.

Friday, November 18, 2016

There are 100% gluten free places to eat in the UK.

As someone living with Coeliac Disease I am extremely careful about what I eat and drink. Since I was diagnosed in 2008 I haven't knowlingly consumed anything containing gluten. However, I have been 'glutened' while dining out and the effects can be horrific and long lasting. So, I'm always looking for safe and suitable 100% gluten free places to eat at while travelling around the UK.

Before diagnosis I was a very adventurous diner and willing to try all manner of food and drink. Emily and I would enjoy visiting lots of different restaurants and takeaways. Nowadays Emily either dines while I watch, or has to wait to visit a place with friends or family to give it a try.

At one of our last meals out together - way back in May - I was glutened. Since then dining out together has been very limited. While dining at home is safe and we do cook up some magnificent food (and great cocktails), we do miss having the whole meal experience. I am now looking to eat at places that are 100% gluten free and safe for Coeliacs. If it's not, I'll vote with my wallet and go elsewhere (or go hungry).

One of my favourite places to eat is at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds. The fact that the restaurant is 100% gluten free and safe for Coeliacs is a real weight off the mind. To be able to visit a restaurant and not be on edge from the start is great. On the occasions I've dined there it's been brilliant. Just little things like NOT having to explain to the waiting staff that I have a medical condition before ordering, or asking to see a 'special' menu, makes a BIG difference.

When dining in a 'normal' restaurant that is trying to offer gluten free options cross contamination is possible. If eating there I can spend the whole time worrying about what could've happened to the meal I'm about to eat/am eating/have eaten. It doesn't make for a very pleasant or 'normal' experience and can often feel like the money has been wasted.

Check out the video, and others in the links below, to see more of the course.

Arnold Palmer Putting Courses are a classic part of the British seaside and it's dreadful to see them either left in this state or worse. Another Arnold Palmer Putting Course to be demolished this year was the layout in Exmouth. We got to visit that course as part of our tour of the south west coast of England in the summer of 2015. Sadly, the two Arnold Palmer courses in Great Yarmouth have also been removed in recent years and been replaced by one Adventure Golf course. While the two courses in Cliftonville, Margate were closed a couple of years ago. The course that was once in Folkestone is no longer playable - as it was used to make an art installation.

The Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Skegness still has an old scorecard in use. It lists many of the Arnold Palmer courses that are long gone. A great bit of minigolf history. Of the Arnold Palmer Putting courses listed on the reverse of the scorecard we've visited Camber Sands (now demolished), Mablethorpe (now Pirate themed), Southend (one of the two courses still exists), Tynemouth (demolished), Cleethorpes, Canvey Island (9 of the original 18-holes remain), Great Yarmouth (replaced by an Adventure Golf), Hastings (home of the World Crazy Golf Championships) and Margate (part demolished in 2014)

There is also a new type of Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. Formerly a Beton-style of Miniature Golf, it received a refurbishment a few years ago and is now an oversized version of many of the courses listed above!

We're now members of the Woodstock Petanque Club, which meets at Alexandra Park in Edgeley, Stockport every other Sunday. Through the club I heard about the Jersey Petanque Club's 2017 Open competition. It sounds like fun.

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

I've heard from the team at Hastings Adventure Golf they now offer minigolf gift vouchers.

In addition to being one of our favourite places for a game of minigolf, Hastings Adventure Golf has a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence and now you can give the gift of the quintessential British seaside day out with gift vouchers for every occasion. Starting from £7.00 for a round of minigolf, or £20 for unlimited golf on its three 18-hole courses.

In action on hole 10 of the Pirate Adventure Golf course in Hastings

This year the venue also opened a fish and chip shop - and thankfully it's undercover, in the warm and away from the pesky seagulls that'll try to mug you for a chip, or your minigolf ball!

I wonder what the seagulls behave like in wintery weather conditions?

We've played the three courses at Hastings Adventure Golf countless times since our first visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in 2007.

We haven't ever played the Hastings course in the snow, but we have played in some very crazy weather conditions in the seaside town over the years.

Unfortunately the guns in our Monorail car didn't work and no scores were given. And there was a fairly long queue for the £2 ride. But it was still fun to ride the rail above the crowds of people enjoying the arcade games below.

A nice bit of ephemera

There's a blacklit tunnel section of the ride

Coral Island is one of my favourite amusement arcades - and we've visited a LOT of arcades on our travels to over 200 seasides in the UK

Saturday, November 05, 2016

We recently became members of the Plaza Film Club at the Plaza Super Cinema and Variety Theatre in Stockport.

The wonderful Art Deco building really stands out - especially when there's a show on

Just before we fully moved up to Cheadle Hulme I popped into Stockport for the first time and one of the first buildings I saw was the Plaza. Emily and I are big fans of Art Deco architecture and The Plaza is a fine example.

The Plaza Film Club membership costs just £5 per year and entitles you to discounted entry to most films and satellite broadcasts - and there's a great programme of events to choose from.

On Halloween night we made our first trip to watch a film there - the original Night of the Living Dead - and it was a tremendous experience. We can't wait to go back. Watching a movie at the Plaza is like nothing else. Such marvellous fun.

Visit the Plaza's website to find out more about the Plaza Super Cinema and Variety Theatre, its history and what's on.

On our recent trip to Blackpool we revisited the Crazy Golf course next to the Metropole Hotel towards the north of the resort.

The illuminated Blackpool Tower and the very old Crazy Golf course

Unfortunately the course was closed. We were there after dark though so that wasn't necessarily a big surprise.

The North Shore layout

The layout has been there for many many years. We've got a lot of postcards in our collection that show the course in its heyday. By the look of it, apart from a lick of paint, the course hasn't really changed much since it was first built.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

For a number of years the Dull Men's Club has published a calendar to help people mark how they're celebrating the ordinary throughout the year. As longstanding members of the Dull Men's Club, Emily and I were selected to appear in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The dullest people in the UK? You decide

The Dull Men’s Club is a place where dull men share thoughts and experiences, free from glitz and glamour, free from pressures to be in and trendy - free instead to enjoy simple, ordinary things. The club's mission statement is “It’s OK to be dull”.

The Dull Men's Club - where dull men, and women who appreciate dull men, share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things

Since we first found out there were so many miniature golf courses around the UK we've made it our mission to visit as many as possible on the 'tickable list'. Over the last ten years we've visited 716 courses - including some overseas - far exceeding the 600 or so there were initially believed to be in the country. With old courses left abandoned, or worse demolished, and new courses popping up all the time we don't quite know if we'll ever finally finish visiting all of them. But the journey we've had so far has been a lot of fun.

Enjoying a break from Crazy Golfing to have a nice sit down on a park bench at Canoe Lake in Southsea - the seaside town was where our Mini Golf adventures began in September 2006

The Dull Men's Club 2017 calendar also features a pencil enthusiast, cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

The 2017 Dull Men’s Club calendar celebrates the men and women who were born to be mild